


Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight

by havisham



Series: havisham's SASO 2017 works collection [16]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tangled (2010) Fusion, Fluff, M/M, imagine midorima and takao singing the songs thank you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 10:16:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11146392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: The kingdom's most wanted thief seeks refuge at a certain long-haired, long-lost prince's tower. (Midotaka,TangledAU.)





	Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SASO 2017 Bonus Round 1.5: AUs, for the [prompt:](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/21931.html?thread=10960555#cmt10960555) _the kingdom's most wanted thief seeks refuge at a certain long-haired, long-lost prince's tower. (tangled au)_.

Takao had been running for so long he wasn’t so particular about where he was running _to_ \-- he squeezed into a crack in the rocks, slimy with wet moss and came out again -- to a small valley. For a moment, Takao stood astonished. In the middle of the valley was a tall tower. If he could hide in there until the soldiers passed, then he’d be home free. 

The only problem was that the tower didn’t seem to have a door. He circled the base a few time to make sure. There was not a single crack or line in the stone where there might be a door. Meanwhile, he heard the clatter of many hoofbeats thundering toward him. Takao wanted to weep. He didn’t think it would happen this way -- he thought his capture and death would have been much more dramatic. 

As he made one last despairing circle around the tower, he was stopped short by a length of rope that hung down in front of him. He looked up and saw that the rope went up and up -- all the way to a window on the very top of the tower. His salvation! 

The color of the rope was a little … odd and greenish, but when Takao tugged at it, it seemed strong enough. Takao didn’t need to be asked twice. He grabbed a hold of the rope and started climbing. 

*

When he finally came to, Takao found himself sprawled on the floor. He was surrounded what had to be the strangest collection of things he’d ever seen. Stuffed animals mixed with pots and pans and musical instruments and other things he couldn’t identify. 

More interesting, however, was a bespectacled young man who stood over him, a heavy frying pan in hand. There was a ceramic frog carefully balanced on his broad shoulders. He was very tall and very serious-looking. His hair was very long -- very, very long. In fact, it was the same color as the rope Takao had climbed the tower with. 

Takao fell in love, instantly. 

“What,” said the young man, adjusting his glasses. “Are you doing here?” 

Takao thought about it for a moment. He sprang up. “I’m here to rescue you, of course!” 

The young man tried to hit him with the frying pan again, but Takao dodged it this time. 

*

Shin-chan, poor thing, was obvious bored out of his skull, living in his tower all by himself. It was obviously not good for him, the solitude, the endless games of shogi, the talking to Kerosuke (the ceramic frog) as if it was real. It was on humanitarian grounds, therefore, that Takao kissed him and -- thus distracted -- he was able to steal the absolutely gorgeous crown that he spotted among wild jumble of things that Shin-chan described as his lucky items.

Takao had intended to make a run for it -- get to the city as quickly as possible to fence it. What he didn’t bet on was Shin-chan accompanying him. 

Takao tried to dissuade him: “The city is very big and loud! A country boy like yourself would have a hard time there.” Or, “What if you get lost and can’t find your way home again?” And then, desperately, “Isn’t anyone going to miss you in that big, lonely tower of yours?” 

All of this just made Shin-chan impatient. 

“Fool,” he said, “I have to go with you. You have my lucky item.” 

“Eh?” Takao was sure Shin-chan hadn’t been watching when he had slipped the crown into his bag. “What’s your lucky item?” 

Shin-chan wouldn’t look at Takao when he muttered, a little sulkily, “You are.” 

“Oh!” 

For some reason, Takao blushed. 

*

It was twice as hard to run when they had Shin-chan’s ridiculously long hair trailing after them. 

“Have you thought about cutting it short?” Takao said, panting against Shin-chan’s chest when they finally stopped. Shin-chan looked like he had suggested smashing Kerosuke and looting him of what coins or pebbles that were stuck in it. 

*

None of the wanted posters ever got Takao’s nose right, but Shin-chan was no dummy. He studied the posters and looked back at Takao. “So, you’re a thief,” he said flatly. “Did you come into my tower to steal something there?” 

“Shin-chan, I’m hurt!” Takao declared. “I would never violate your tower in that way! But it’s true, I am a thief -- the best in the country! No one has ever caught Takao Kazunari and no one ever will!” 

It was shortly after that they were captured. 

*

They escaped, of course, to the eternal frustration of Takao’s sworn enemy, the hated Captain Miyaji (who was, really, not so much hated as he was terribly good at his job. And his job was to make Takao’s life living hell.) 

*

It turned out that Shin-chan was hiding a few things too. 

Takao took a look at the print of the missing Prince Shintarou pasted on the bookstore window, and then glanced over at Shin-chan (who was busy bargaining with a very little but very serious girl for a bag of ugly hairclips -- with an alarming amount of Takao’s hard-stolen jewels.) 

Oh, and there was that evil foster-mother who had been chasing them since Shin-chan had escaped from his tower. 

There was that too. 

*

“Ah, you were my new dream, Shin-chan! The best thing I ever stole was your heart,” Takao said as he began to cough up blood. He had always prided himself on having an optimistic view on life, but even he couldn’t quite ignore the inch-sized hole in his stomach, or the fact that most of his blood seemed to be escaping from there. 

Shin-chan was pretending very hard that he wasn’t crying. Takao knew this because he didn’t even take off his fogged up glasses and wipe them off. He hadn’t even cried this much when Kerosuke had been smashed (revealing nothing inside except a little scroll of paper that Takao couldn’t read and Shin-chan refused to translate.) 

“You idiot,” he said and kissed Takao. The kiss tasted like salt and felt sweeter than any kiss Takao had ever had. Later, he would claim that it was the kiss that healed him, but of course, it was the last bit of magic from Shin-chan’s raggedly cut hair. 

*

And now, newly crowned, Prince Shintarou of the House of Midorima looked out from the balcony to the kingdom that he would soon inherit. The last few months had been excessively challenging ones for him. Having been kidnapped as a child and raised alone in a tower (with only occasional visits from his foster mother/kidnapper), he found himself sorely unequipped to the task of running a kingdom. 

Some of the neighboring princes -- Prince Seijuuro of Rakuzan especially -- had been solicitous with advice and generous with offers of their friendship, but Prince Shintarou wasn’t sure how much of that he could accept.

It didn’t help that the moment he was recognized for being the prince that he was, Takao had decided to strike off somewhere, chasing a new adventure. 

“I’ll see you again, Prince Shin-chan!” he said with a cheerful wave. And with complete ignorance of all royal protocol, he kissed Prince Shintarou one last time and escaped out the window, much to Captain Miyaji’s displeasure. 

Why had Takao gone? Prince Shintarou had assured him that he would be pardoned for his crimes (even for stealing the emerald crown that was his own birthright and the most precious heirloom of the House of Midorima) -- but Takao had refused to elaborate. 

Prince Shintarou sighed deeply. He loved his newly found parents, but sometimes he felt as lonely in the palace had he done in his tower. 

Stupid Takao, running off like that. 

He heard a small sound of something metal against stone and whirled around, his sword out of its scabbard and in his hand. Prince Seijuuro had warned him about assassination attempts but he’d never really taken him seriously before now. 

Takao was clinging to one of balcony posts. He waved to Prince Shintarou. “A little help here?” 

“What are you doing here,” Prince Shintarou said, sheathing his sword and helping Takao climb over the balcony railing. 

“I couldn’t resist your sad face, Prince Shin-chan,” Takao said cheerfully. “Why didn’t you tell me you liked me that much before I left?” 

“You fool,” Prince Shintarou said, his voice shaking a little bit. “As if you’d given me a chance.” 


End file.
